****** LOOM 4.0 RELEASE NOTES **** July 9, 1999 One major change and a number of smaller changes have been made. The major change in Loom 4.0 is the addition of units and dimensions as a fundamental data type. Other changes are an extension of the meta-level predicates, particularly for roles and role values. More support for qualified relations has been added. Regular expression and wildcard searching of object names has been added. The input language has been extended with two new operators, :the-list and :the-list* in order to make the construction of lists of Loom objects much simpler. Also, Loom now supports both open and closed intervals (previously only closed intervals were properly supported). Documentation for the :roles keyword is included. Context creation has been made faster and there are other improvements "under the hood" as far as performance and some extension of Loom's inference abilities. Loom 4.0 will be the last release of the Loom language. All future development will involve the PowerLoom language. The source files are available through our web site: http://www.isi.edu/isd/LOOM/how-to-get.html or from the ftp server at isi.edu under the account name "loomftp" using the standard loomftp password. The files are available in Unix tar format and Macintosh compress binhex format. The file names are: loom4.0.tar Unix tar file loom4.0.tar.gz GZip Compressed Unix tar file Loom4.0.sea.hqx Macintosh binhex file As always, remember to transfer the *.tar file in binary mode. Installation instructions for all systems can be found in the file loom4.0-install.text CONTENTS: o :THE-LIST and :THE-LIST* o OPEN AND CLOSED INTERVALS o QUALIFIED RELATIONS o :ROLES KEYWORD o INSTANCE ROLES ADDED o CHANGES TO THE TBOX o CHANGES TO LOOM FUNCTIONS o REGULAR EXPRESSION AND WILDCARDS o UNITS AND DIMENSIONS o CHANGES TO LOOM-FEATURES o OKBC SUPPORT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === :THE-LIST and :THE-LIST* === To make it easier to construct lists that include Loom objects, two new operators have been introduced. Previously the only way to have a single value which was a list of Loom objects was to use one of the functional calls like SET-VALUES or FSET-VALUES. The new operators create a list of their contents after Loom's normal parsing. These operators parallel the Common Lisp LIST and LIST* functions. Examples: (tell (r fred (:the-list 'billy william (:the-list 'jim james)))) (retrieve ?x (r fred ?x)) => ((BILLY |I|WILLIAM (JIM |I|JAMES))) (retrieve ?y (= ?y (:the-list (:the-list* 1 2 3) 'g james))) => (((1 2 . 3) G |I|JAMES)) (retrieve ?x (r ?x (:the-list 'billy william (:the-list 'jim james)))) => (|I|FRED) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === OPEN AND CLOSED INTERVALS === Loom now supports both open and closed intervals. The previous support for intervals supported only closed intervals via the :THROUGH keyword. Open intervals were handled by either producing closed intervals (if possible, for example with integer intervals) or by using approximations to the open interval based by exploiting the limits of precision of floating point numbers. The reason this is an issue for Loom users is that Loom would tranforms a definition that looked like: (defconcept foo :is (:and bar (> r 3) (< r 10))) into an equivalent form with a value restriction: (defconcept foo :is (:and bar (:all r (:through 4 9)))) ;; Loom 3.0 With Loom 4.0, four new interval creating operators are introduced and the :THROUGH operator has been declared obsolete. If it is encountered a nagging message will appear, but the code will continue to function. The new operators are: :INTERVAL++ Closed interval. :INTERVAL+- Semi-open. Open at the high end. :INTERVAL-+ Semi-open. Open at the low end. :INTERVAL-- Open interval. The naming convention is that there are two symbols at the end of the operator name. A "+" indicates that the value is part of the interval and a "-" indicates that the value is not part of the interval. The precise semantics are: x is in (:interval++ a b) iff a <= x <= b x is in (:interval+- a b) iff a <= x < b x is in (:interval-+ a b) iff a < x <= b x is in (:interval-- a b) iff a < x < b In Loom 4.0, the definitions (defconcept foo :is (:and bar (> r 3) (< r 10))) (defconcept baz :is (:and bar (> r 1.7) (<= r 12.6))) is transformed into (defconcept foo :is (:and bar (:all r (:interval-- 3 10)))) (defconcept baz :is (:and bar (:all r (:interval-+ 1.7 12.6)))) Note that BAZ subsumes FOO. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === QUALIFIED RELATIONS === In addition to relations, Loom also offers the ability to place restrictions on qualified relations. A qualified relation is a relation restricted to a particular range. A relation R restricted by qualification Q is the same as the relation defined by (:and R (:range Q)). For convenience, Loom number and type restriction operators allow specification of qualified relations. One type of qualified relation is very common and has had a long-standing short form: :SOME restrictions: (:some R C) <=> (:at-least 1 R C) One can also introduce restrictions with other numbers, such as (:at-least 2 child Male) to define someone with >= 2 boys. The trickiest one conceptually is the :ALL type restriction. Partially that is because the qualification comes last in the form (since it is the optional part of the syntax). (:all R C Q) means that all fillers of R which happen to be of type Q must be of type C. Fillers that are not of type Q may or may not be of type C. Contrast that with (:all R (:and C Q)) means that all fillers of R must be of type Q and of type C A concrete example would be: (defconcept Unenlightened-Corporation :is (:and Corporation (:all employee Male Manager)) :annotations ((documentation "An unenlightened corporation is one in which all of the employees who are managers are Male."))) ----- A number of meta-predicates and functions have been added to make it easier to use qualified relations and do reasoning about them. The details are in the section on TBOX changes (look for relations with the word "QUALIFIED" in them) and also in the changes to Loom functions section (look for the keyword argument "qualification"). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === :ROLES KEYWORD === The :roles keyword was introduced in Loom 2.0 to make a frame-like syntax possible for those users who preferred that modeling paradigm. The keyword was never completely documented. Since then there have been some extensions to the syntax. The complete specification of the :roles keyword is as follows: (defconcept :roles ( ( :min ; Minimum cardinality :max ; Maximum cardinality :type ; Type of Role Range :value ; One filler of Role. ; appear multiple times. :default ; One default filler of Role. Can ; appear multiple times. :function ; Functional definition of Role. :predicate ; Predicate for checking role as ; Tuple. :facets (( ) ...) ; Annotations on the Role :characteristics ( ...) ; Role Characteristics currently ; only :virtual is legal ) ) ) Role specifications are not part of the definition of a concept, so they are not used in concept classification. They do introduce constraints that are checked when incoherence is being detected. Also, roles introduced by the :ROLES keyword are returned by the GET-ROLES function. If the is not defined separately with DEFRELATION, Loom will create a definition. The default definition will be for either a single valued or multiple valued relation. This behavior is controlled by the Loom feature :MAKE-ROLES-SINGLE-VALUED, which is SET by default. If a simple role name appears, then that means that the associated relation is considered a role of that concept. There are no other implications. In particular, there may be zero fillers of the role. A more detailed explanation of the role keywords (R :min i) implies (:at-least i R) (R :max i) implies (:at-most i R) (R :type C) implies (:all R C) (R :value i1 :value i2) implies (:filled-by R i1 i2) (R :default i1 :default i2) defaults (:filled-by R i1 i2) Note: Loom defaults are inference defaults and not initial values. (R :function f) means to use function f to compute the values for this role. f should either be a generic function name or a lambda expression that takes one argument. (R :predicate p) means to use function p to determine if a tuple belongs to this role. p should either be a generic function name or a lambda expression that takes two arguments. (R :facets ((documentation "This is a documentation string") (P p-value) (q q-value))) Facets are annotations on the role object. They can be queried like any Loom assertions. The role object itself can be referenced in a query using the THE-ROLE relation. (R :characteristics (:virtual)) :VIRTUAL the only supported characteristic at this time. It is only used to suppress the creation of a real CLOS slot on the CLOS class associated with this concept if CLOS instances are being used. Example: (defrelation p :characteristics (:multiple-valued)) ;; Override default (defconcept foo :roles ((p :min 2 :max 3 :value 4 :value 5 :default 10) (q :facets ((documentation "This is role Q on Foo"))))) (defconcept bar :roles ((r :type (:and integer (:interval+- 1 5))))) (setq foo.p (get-role 'foo 'p)) => |ROLE|(P 2 3 THING) (all-values foo.p) => (5 4 10) (strict-values foo.p) => (4 5) (default-values foo.p) => (10) (min-value foo.p) => NIL (min-cardinality foo.p) => 2 (max-cardinality foo.p) => 3 (cardinality foo.p) => NIL ; Since 2 /= 3 (retrieve ?d (documentation (the-role 'foo 'q) ?d)) => ("This is role Q on Foo") (setq bar.r (get-role 'bar 'r)) => |ROLE|(R 0 1 INTEGER) (min-value bar.r) => 1 1 ; Second value is NIL if the minimum value is a limit ; and non-NIL if it is an exact bound. (max-value bar.r) => 5 NIL ; Second value is NIL if the maximum value is a limit ; and non-NIL if it is an exact bound. (all-values bar.r) => NIL The role objects have the following functions available for use. There are also corresponding relations for use in the query language: CONCEPT role the object (concept) the role is defined on RELATION role the relation for this role object TYPES role the type restriction on fillers of this role MIN-CARDINALITY role the minimum cardinality for this role MAX-CARDINALITY role the maximum cardinality for this role CARDINALITY role the cardinality of the role (if it exists) MIN-VALUE role the minimum value, and a flag if inclusive MAX-VALUE role the maximum value, and a flag if inclusive ALL-VALUES role all fillers STRICT-VALUES role only strict (required) fillers DEFAULT-VALUES role only default fillers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === INSTANCE ROLES ADDED === In addition to the roles on concepts, support for role objects have also been added for instances. This is in part to support the OKBC notion of facets on "own" slots. This means that the GET-ROLES function will now work on instances as well as concepts. GET-ROLES on concepts continues to work as it did before, namely to retrieve what are known as in OKBC terms as "template" slots. A new functions GET-INSTANCE-ROLE has been added. This will return (and create if necessary), an instance role on the object. The function GET-ROLES has been extended with a new keyword argument :INSTANCE-ROLE-ON-CONCEPT-P, which allows the retrieval of all instance roles on concepts. If you are not using OKBC, then this change should not be of any concern. The following function was added in support of instance roles INSTANCE role the object (instance) the role is defined on it is actually a synonym for CONCEPT. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === CHANGES TO THE TBOX === These changes represent changes from Loom 3.0 to Loom 4.0. You are advised to consult the Loom 3.0 release notes for additional changes from the reference manual. The most extensive change on the concept side is the addition of numeric and semi-numeric concepts to support the measures and dimensions. There has also been an expansion of relations to provide better access to meta-information as well as to support the units and dimensions. The measures-related information is presented in its own section below. The constants are changed around a bit. All constant types are disjoint unless they are in a subsumption relations. In particular, this means that FLOATING-POINT-NUMBER and INTEGER are disjoint. The new hierarchy looks like: CONSTANT CHARACTER CONS-OR-NIL LIST QUANTITY MEASURE ... (see section Units and Dimensions) NUMBER FLOATING-POINT-NUMBER RATIONAL-NUMBER INTEGER STRING SYMBOL The other changes are detailed below. The notation (RO) means the relation is read-only. "R", "C" and "Q" refer to "Relation", "Concept" and "Qualification" respectively. This is used in some of the abbreviations. == CONCEPT REMOVED: Concept SEQUENCE == NEW CONCEPTS AND RELATIONS Concept FLOATING-POINT-NUMBER New subtype of number Concept MAX-RESTRICTION Max cardinality restriction Concept MEASURE Measure Object (Units & Dimensions) Concept MEASUREMENT-CONCEPT Meta Concept for Measures Concept MIN-RESTRICTION Min cardinality restriction Concept OKBC-INDIVIDUAL Support for OKBC Concept QUANTITY New supertype of number and Measure Concept RATIONAL-NUMBER New subtype of number Concept RESTRICTION Restriction MetaObject Concept VALUE-RESTRICTION Value restriction Relation ALL-VALUES Relation on ROLE for all fillers (RO) Relation BACKGROUND-FILE-NAME Associates filename with context Relation DEFAULT-VALUES Relation on ROLE for default fillers (RO) Relation DEFAULT-ROLE-VALUES 3-ary: default fillers of R on C (RO) Relation DEFAULT-QUALIFIED-ROLE-VALUES 4-ary: R x C x Q => default fillers Relation DIRECT-DEPENDENTS Meta relation (no longer obsolete) (RO) Relation DISJOINT Relates disjoint concepts. (RO) Relation INCOHERENCE-REASON Records Incoherence justification (RO) Relation MAX-VALUE Relation on ROLE for maximum value (RO) Relation MEASURE-OBJECT Relation MIN-VALUE Relation on ROLE for maximum value (RO) Relation OKBC-PRETTY-NAME OKBC support Relation OKBC-SLOT-COLLECTION-TYPE OKBC support (RO) Relation OUTPUT-UNIT Annotation for GUI support. Relation PROPER-SUBRELATIONS Subrelations not including SELF Relation PROPER-SUPERRELATIONS Superrelations not including SELF Relation PROPOSITION-ARGUMENTS Relation PROPOSITION-OPERATOR Relation PROPOSITION-TRUTH-VALUE Relation QUALIFICATION Qualification of a RESTRICTION (RO) Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-VALUES 4-ary: C x R x Q => all fillers Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-TYPES 4-ary: C x R x Q => filler type Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-CARDINALITY 4-ary: C x R x Q => cardinality Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-MAX-CARDINALITY 4-ary: C x R x Q => max cardinality Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-MIN-CARDINALITY 4-ary: C x R x Q => min cardinality Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-MAX-VALUE 4-ary: C x R x Q => max value of filler Relation QUALIFIED-ROLE-MIN-VALUE 4-ary: C x R x Q => min value of filler Relation ROLE-MAX-VALUE 3-ary: Max value of relation on concept Relation ROLE-MIN-VALUE 3-ary: Min value of relation on concept Relation STRICT-VALUES Relation on ROLE for strict fillers (RO) Relation STRICT-ROLE-VALUES 3-ary: Strict fillers of relation on concept Relation STRICT-QUALIFIED-ROLE-VALUES 4-ary: C x R x Q => strict fillers Relation THE-INSTANCE-ROLE Gets an instance role Relation VALUE-TYPE 3-ary: Value type of relation on concept == OBSOLETE CONCEPTS AND RELATIONS The following concepts and relations are now considered obsolete. They are no longer present in BUILT-IN-THEORY by default. If you wish to continue using them, you will need to explicitly set the Loom feature :load-obsolete-concepts: (set-feature :load-obsolete-concepts) At some point in the future (although maybe not in your lifetime :) these concepts and relations will disappear from Loom entirely. This list has not changed significantly since Loom 3.0, although there are two additional equivalences and more information available from roles. Type Old Name New Substitute -------- ------------------ ------------------------ Concept Old-Role Concept max-restriction [Use Roles *] Concept max-restriction-p max-restriction Concept min-restriction [Use Roles *] Concept min-restriction-p min-restriction Concept named-p user-defined Concept Restriction [Use Roles *] Concept restriction-p restriction Concept value-restriction [Use Roles *] Concept value-restriction-p value-restriction Property primitive-p primitive Property single-valued-p single-valued Property user-defined-p user-defined Relation concept--attributes characteristics Relation concept--characteristics characteristics Relation concept--instances instances Relation concept--name loom::name Relation concept--restrictions [Use Roles *] roles Relation direct-dependents Relation direct-subconcept direct-subrelations Relation direct-subconcepts direct-subrelations Relation direct-superconcept direct-superrelations Relation direct-superconcepts direct-superrelations Relation has-role roles Relation instance--asserted-concepts Relation instance--asserted-type Relation instance--cached-concepts Relation instance--concepts instance-of Relation instance--forward-chaining-type Relation instance--identifier loom::name Relation instance--max-restriction role-max-cardinality Relation instance--min-restriction role-min-cardinality Relation instance--type instance-of Relation instance--value-restriction role-types Relation instance-of-p instance-of Relation isa-p isa Relation relation--domain domain Relation relation--name loom::name Relation relation--range range Relation relation--restrictions restrictions Relation restriction--concepts [Use Roles *] concept Relation restriction--max [Use Roles *] max-cardinality Relation restriction--min [Use Roles *] min-cardinality Relation restriction--qualification qualification Relation restriction--relation [Use Roles *] relation Relation restriction--value-restriction [Use Roles *] types Relation role--concept concept Relation role--instance (Old Style Roles) Relation role--relation (Old Style Roles) Relation role--value (Old Style Roles) Relation subconcept* subrelations Relation subconcept+ proper-subrelations Relation subconcepts subrelations Relation superconcept* superrelations Relation superconcept+ proper-superrelations Relation superconcepts superrelations NOTES ABOUT OBSOLETE CONCEPTS and RELATIONS * [Use Roles] We are recommending not using the restrictions but using Role objects instead. Role objects can be retrieved using the binary relation "roles" on a concept to return all roles or the ternary relation "the-role" which returns a role object for a Concept, Relation pair. Once a role object is available, information about number and value restrictions can be obtained using the following relations: min-cardinality max-cardinality cardinality (Only has a value of min = max) types min-value max-value all-values strict-values default-values ** There is no equivalent for these relations. If you are using them, please contact the loom development team and we will work something out. *** The relation "the-relation" is a ternary (3-place) relation that relates a SYMBOL, NUMBER and CONCEPT/RELATION. The number is the arity of the relation. Concepts are considered unary relations. Using this form instead of the obsolete "name--relation" requires that you know the arity of the relation you wish to find, but it is probably a good idea to know that anyway. The most common relations are binary, so the arity would be 2. Examples: (retrieve ?c (the-relation 'concept 1 ?x)) ==> (|C|CONCEPT) (retrieve ?c (the-relation 'domain 2 ?x)) ==> (|R|DOMAIN) (retrieve ?c (the-relation '< 2 ?x)) ==> (|R|<) (retrieve ?c (the-relation '+ 3 ?x)) ==> (|R|+) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === CHANGES TO LOOM FUNCTIONS === == New Functions: ALL-VALUES role Returns all fillers for "role". This is the union of the strict and default fillers. BASE-UNIT measure DEFAULT-VALUES role Returns default fillers for "role". This may not always be the same as the declared defaults, since any default fillers which are also strict fillers will NOT be returned by this function. DEFINE-MEASUREMENT-CONCEPT name example &key dont-define-synonym-p DEFINE-PROPERTY &rest options A functional interface to the DEFPROPERTY macro. This is just like DEFINE-CONCEPT, except that the :domain keyword is also supported. DIMENSIONED-NUMBER quant unit FIND-OBJECTS objectOrName &key type local-p no-warning-p ignore-package-p context match GET-EXPLICITLY-DECLARED-ROLES conceptOrName &key direct-p Return a list of explicitly-declared roles (including inherited roles unless `direct-p' is non-NIL) for the concept `conceptOrName'. A role is explicitly declared if it appears in a :roles clause. GET-INSTANCE-ROLE instance relation Return an instance role for relation `relation' on `instance'. This is similar the function `GET-ROLE', but returns a role specifically for this instance. GET-ROLE-MAX-VALUE conceptOrInstance relation &key qualification Returns the maximum numeric value that "relation" with optional "qualification" has on "conceptOrInstance". If no such maximum is known, then NIL is returned. GET-ROLE-MIN-VALUE conceptOrInstance relation &key qualification Returns the minimum numeric value that "relation" with optional "qualification" has on "conceptOrInstance". If no such minimum is known, then NIL is returned. MAX-VALUE role Returns the maximum numeric value of "role". If no such maximum is known, then NIL is returned. Operates on role objects. MIN-VALUE role Returns the maximum numeric value of "role". If no such maximum is known, then NIL is returned. Operates on role objects. PROPERTY-P object Returns non-NIL if "object" is a PROPERTY (a unary relation defined using DEFPROPERTY). SKOLEM-INSTANCE-P object Returns non-NIL if "object" is a skolem instance (created with CREATE-SKOLEM-INSTANCE. STRICT-VALUES role Returns strict (required) fillers for "role". UNIT-MAGNITUDE dimensionedNumber UNIT-UNIT dimensionedNumber UNIT-VALUE-AS dimensionedNumber desiredUnit UNITS measure VALUE-TYPE role Returns strict (required) fillers for "role". == Additional Arguments: CREATION-POLICY &optional contextOrPolicy policy Changed creation-policy to allow specifying the context. The first argument is now either a context, context-name or policy keyword. If the first is a policy keyword, then the current context is used. The second argument is a policy keyword, but is only used if the first argument is a context. As before, a call with no arguments returns the policy of the current context. A call with only the context argument returns the policy of the specified context. FIND-CONCEPT FIND-CONTEXT contextOrName &key error-p match FIND-INSTANCE FIND-KB FIND-RELATION GET-ROLE objectOrName relationOrName &key no-error-p GET-ROLES conceptOrInstanceOrName &key instance-role-on-concept-p Added "instance-role-on-concept-p" keyword argument. If non-NIL, then instead of getting the normal roles for concepts, instance roles are returned. Also, the first argument can now be something other than a concept, in which case instance roles are returned. GET-TYPES instanceOrName &key direct-p asserted-p raw-p Added keyword argument ":raw-p". Normally this function returns only user-defined concepts as types. If :raw-p is non-NIL, then Loom internal concepts will be returned instead. GET-VALUE instanceOrName roleOrName &key context kb asserted-p direct-p no-error-p no-defaults-p Added keyword ":no-defaults-p", which will return only the values of the role that do not require default reasoning. GET-VALUES instanceOrName roleOrName &key context kb asserted-p direct-p no-error-p no-defaults-p Added keyword ":no-defaults-p", which will return only the values of the role that do not require default reasoning. GET-SUPERRELATIONS relationOrName &key direct-p raw-p proper-p GET-SUBRELATIONS relationOrName &key direct-p raw-p proper-p GET-SUPERCONCEPTS conceptOrName &key direct-p raw-p proper-p GET-SUBCONCEPTS conceptOrName &key direct-p raw-p proper-p Added the keywords ":raw-p" and ":proper-p". The :raw-p keyword, if non-NIL, specifies that concepts that are not user-defined will also be returned in the list of supers or subs. The :proper-p keyword, if non-NIL, means that the relation or concept itself will NOT be returned. Normally, the subs and supers lists include the concept or relation itself. GET-ROLE-TYPES object relation &key qualification raw-p Added the keywords ":raw-p" and ":qualification". The :raw-p keyword, if non-NIL, specifies that concepts that are not user-defined will also be returned. The :qualification keyword is used to allow asking about qualified relations. Examples: (defconcept a :is (:and c (:all r (:and x y)))) (defconcept b :is (:and c (> r 3))) (get-role-types (fc c) (fr r) :raw-p nil) ==> (|C|X C|Y|) (get-role-types (fc c) (fr r) :raw-p t) ==> (|C|X&Y|) (get-role-types (fc b) (fr r) :raw-p nil) ==> (|C|NUMBER) (get-role-types (fc b) (fr r) :raw-p t) ==> (|C|LOOM::NUMBER_0002(:INTERVAL+- '-INFINITY 3)) (defconcept k :is (:and c (:all r x y))) (get-role-types (fc k) (fr r) :qualification NIL) ==> (|C|THING) (get-role-types (fc k) (fr r) :qualification (fc y)) ==> (|C|X) GET-ROLE-MIN-CARDINALITY object relation &key qualification GET-ROLE-MAX-CARDINALITY object relation &key qualification GET-ROLE-CARDINALITY object relation &key qualification GET-ROLE-VALUES object relation &key qualification GET-ROLE-STRICT-VALUES object relation &key qualification GET-ROLE-DEFAULT-VALUES object relation &key qualification Added the keyword argument ":qualification". Used to get information about the qualified role rather than the role at large. Example: (defconcept k :is (:and c (:at-least 1 r x) (:at-most 3 r x))) (get-role-min-cardinality (fc c) (fr r) :qualification NIL) => 1 (get-role-min-cardinality (fc c) (fr r) :qualification (fc x)) => 1 (get-role-min-cardinality (fc c) (fr r) :qualification (fc y)) => 0 (get-role-max-cardinality (fc c) (fr r) :qualification NIL) => NIL (get-role-max-cardinality (fc c) (fr r) :qualification (fc x)) => 3 (get-role-max-cardinality (fc c) (fr r) :qualification (fc y)) => NIL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === REGULAR EXPRESSION AND WILDCARDS === The FIND-... functions have been modified to expand their search capabilities. If the extended search capabilities are taken advantage of, then the value returned by the FIND-... functions will be lists rather than single objects. Care was taken to not change the return value if the arguments are given as in previous Loom versions. The "match" argument to the functions specifies how the matching is to be carried out. The following are legal arguments: o :EXACT match exactly, including case. * :CASE-INSENSITIVE match exactly, but case does not matter. o :SUBSTRING-EXACT match a substring, including case. o :SUBSTRING match a substring, but case does not matter. o :WILDCARD-EXACT match using wildcard characters ? and *, other letters must match, including case. o :WILDCARD match using wildcard characters ? and *, for other letters, case does not matter. o :REGEX-EXACT matching using regular expressions, other letters must match exactly, including case. o :REGEX matching using regular expressions, for other letters case does not matter. The default value for all of the FIND-... functions is :CASE-INSENSITIVE, unless a symbol is passed as the argument to FIND-CONCEPT, FIND-INSTANCE or FIND-RELATION, in which case :EXACT is the default match value. Wildcards use "*" to match any number of characters (including 0), and "?" to match any single character. Regular expressions are a bit more complicated. The following capabilities are supported: == REGULAR EXPRESSION MEANINGS CHARACTER MEANING ^ Beginning of string $ End of string . (period) Matches any character * Zero or more of the preceding element + One or more of the preceding element [...] Match any one of the elements in the square brackets. A range may be specified using the "-" (hyphen) character. To include a hyphen itself, it must be the first element inside the square brackets. If the first character is "^" (caret), then this inverts the sense of the test--in other words the match is for anything except what is specified in the square brackets. (...) Grouping operator. Make the regular expression in parentheses act as a single element. Can also be referenced later. \ Refer to the -th element in parentheses. The first element is number 1. \ Escape character. Used to enter any of the special regular expression characters as its literal self, or to introduce the reference to a previous group or a special character group. \t Tab character \r Return character \n Newline character \b Word boundaries: Tab, Space, [.,!:] \B non Word boundaries \d Digits: [0-9] \D non Digit \s Space characters: Tab Newline Space Return \S non Space characters \w Word constituents: [0-9a-zA-Z_] \W non word constituents == EXAMPLES EXPRESSION MEANING .* Match anything. (Not recommended: Finds too many matches.) ^AIRCRAFT Finds names beginning with "AIRCRAFT". AIRCRAFT$ Finds names ending with "AIRCRAFT". ^AIRCRAFT$ Find an exact match for "AIRCRAFT". ^.$ Match all single character names. ^..$ Match all double character names. T.T Finds names which have "T" in them twice, separated by any other character. TH.*TH Finds names which have "TH" in them twice, with any number of intervening characters. [0-9] Finds names which include a digit. [-_] Finds names which include a hyphen or underscore. ([A-Z])\1 Finds names which have the same character twice in a row. [^AEIOU] Finds names which have at least one letter that is not a vowel. ^[^AEIOU]*$ Finds names which have no vowels. ^[^-]*$ Finds names which have no hyphens. == FUNCTIONS SUPPORTING REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. FIND-CONCEPT conceptOrName &key no-warning-p ignore-package-p context match Added :match keyword to support regular expression matching. The conceptOrName argument should be a string. FIND-CONTEXT contextOrName &key error-p match Added :match keyword to support regular expression matching. The conceptOrName argument should be a string. FIND-INSTANCE instanceOrName &key no-warning-p context ignore-package-p match Added :match keyword to support regular expression matching. The conceptOrName argument should be a string. FIND-KB knowledgeBaseOrName &key match Added :match keyword to support regular expression matching. The conceptOrName argument should be a string. FIND-OBJECTS objectOrName &key type local-p no-warning-p ignore-package-p context match Find objects returns a list of objects. This is the general interface to finding Loom objects other than Contexts and KBs. The objects that are searched over is specified by the :TYPE argument, which is one of :CONCEPTS :RELATIONS :INSTANCES or :ANY. The default value is :ANY. The search will take place in the context specified or the current context. The search will include all super contexts as well, unless :LOCAL-P is non-NIL. If no matching objects can be found, then a warning will be issued unless :NO-WARNING-P is non-NIL. If :IGNORE-PACAKGE-P is non-NIL, then the Lisp package of a symbol passed as "objectOrName" is ignored in the matching. If the name is not a symbol, this has no effect. MATCH is one of :exact :case-insensitive :substring-exact :substring :wildcard-exact :wildcard :regex-exact :regex Defaults are TYPE = :ANY and MATCH = :CASE-INSENSITIVE FIND-RELATION relationOrName &key no-warning-p ignore-package-p context match Added :match keyword to support regular expression matching. The conceptOrName argument should be a string. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === UNITS AND DIMENSIONS === A units and dimensions package has been added to Loom. The original code was written by Roman Cunis at the University of Hamburg and is available in the Carnegie-Mellon University Lisp archives. It has been integrated into this Loom release. Details on the operation of that package are included in separate documentation files: measures/unit-definitions.text Describes the units included with the Loom measures/measures-usage.text How to use the measures package. measures/measures-implementation.text How the measures are implmented. The measures package allows the specification and manipulation of dimensioned quantities. If Loom is compiled to include units and dimensions (the default setting), then the TBOX includes concepts for the dimensioned quantities as well as relations which allow the use of dimensioned quantities in assertions and queries. The arthimetic operations (+, -, *, /) and comparison operators (>, <, <=, >=, =, /=) are also extended to work with dimensioned quantities. The units and dimensioned are integrated with the Lisp reader so that one may adopt a fairly natural means of specifying dimensioned units. It is simply a number immediately followed by a units expression. CASE IS SIGNIFICANT in the units expression. The units expression consists of unit names with optional exponents, and an optional "/" to indicate division of units. To separate units, either the exponent 1 or a period (".") may be used. For example, "five newton meters" could be written "5N.m". A large number of units are predefined. The base units are taken from the SI, but a large number of English units are also included. TBOX additions with the measures package: Measures CONCEPTS. All are read-only. LOOM::MEASURE Concept to which all dimensioned quantities belong. Not exported from the LOOM package to avoid name conflicts with existing user code. MEASUREMENT-CONCEPT Meta Concept for all subtypes of MESURE ACCELERATION-MEASURE base unit: m/s2 ANGLE-MEASURE base unit: deg AREA-MEASURE base unit: m2 DATA-MEASURE base unit: bit DENSITY-MEASURE base unit: kg/m3 DISTANCE-MEASURE base unit: m ELECTRIC-CURRENT-MEASURE base unit: A ELECTRIC-POTENTIAL-MEASURE base unit: V ELECTRIC-RESISTANCE-MEASURE base unit: ohm FORCE-MEASURE base unit: N FREQUENCY-MEASURE base unit: Hz ILLUMINANCE-MEASURE base unit: lux INDUCTANCE-MEASURE base unit: H LUMINOUS-INTENSITY-MEASURE base unit: Cd MAGNETIC-FLUX-DENSITY-MEASURE base unit: T MAGNETIC-FLUX-MEASURE base unit: Wb MASS-MEASURE base unit: kg POWER-MEASURE base unit: W PRESSURE-MEASURE base unit: Pa REVOLUTION-MEASURE base unit: deg/s SCALAR-MEASURE no base unit SPEED-MEASURE base unit: m/s TEMPERATURE-MEASURE base unit: K (on a temperature scale) TIME-MEASURE base unit: s VOLUME-MEASURE base unit: m3 WORK-OR-TORQUE-MEASURE base unit: J (indistinguishable from N.m) Measures RELATIONS. All are read-only. UNIT-UNIT (unit-unit Measure UnitString) relates a dimensioned quantity to its unit. UNIT-MAGNITUDE (unit-magnitude Measure Number) relates a dimensioned quantity to its magnitude. In general the magnitude will be a rational number. It is expressed in terms of the units returned by the UNIT-UNIT relation. UNIT-MAGNITUDE-AS (unit-value-as Measure UnitString Number) relates a Measure to its magnitude in the given unit as long as Measure and UnitString are compatible. DIMENSIONED-NUMBER (dimensioned-number Quantity UnitString Measure) Relates a a `Quantity' in the units specified in `UnitString' as long as `Quantity' is either a Number, or it and `UnitString' are compatible. This can be used to create new dimensioned quantities. UNITS (units MeasurementConcept UnitString) is a multiple-valued relation between a Measurement concept and the defined units of that measurement. BASE-UNIT (base-unit MeasurementConcept UnitString) a single-valued relation between a Measurement concept and the base unit for that measurement. Measures Functions. These largely correspond to the relations noted above. BASE-UNIT measurementConcept Returns the base unit of the concept. DEFINE-MEASUREMENT-CONCEPT name example &key dont-define-synonym-p Define a measurement concept named `name' based on an example of a dimensioned quantity `example'. If there is an existing measurement concept that includes `example', then a synonym for that concept is defined unless `:dont-define-synonym-p' is non-NIL. The default is to define a synonym. Returns the measurement concept for `example'. If `example' is not a dimensioned quantity, then a warning is printed and NIL is returned. In all other cases, a measurement concept is returned -- either the existing one or a new one. Note that if a synonym is defined, it will eventually be merged with the existing measurement concept. DIMENSIONED-NUMBER quantity unit Returns a dimensioned number constructed from the magnitude and unit. This is handy for programmatically creating dimensioned numbers since it doesn't require running using the reader. It can also be used to create dimensioned numbers with different default printing units. In that case, the quantity and the unit specified must be compatible. Examples: (dimensioned-number 34 "m/s2") => 34m/s2 (dimensioned-number 24in "ft") => 2ft (dimensioned-number 24in "in") => 24in UNIT-MAGNITUDE dimensionedNumber Returns the magnitude of the dimensioned number. The magnitude is consistent with the value returned by the UNIT-UNIT function. Example: (unit-magnitude 24in) => 24 UNIT-UNIT dimensionedNumber Returns the unit of the dimensioned number as a string. The unit is consistent with the value returned by the UNIT-MAGNITUDE function. Example: (unit-magnitude 24in) => "in" UNIT-VALUE-AS dimensionedNumber desiredUnit Returns the value of the dimensioned number in the desired unit. For fractional cases this will generally be a rational number. Example: (unit-value-as 10000m "km") => 10 UNITS measure Returns a list of all the units associated with the given measurement concept. Arithmetic functions. These parallel the built-in Common Lisp functions, but work with the dimensioned numbers. Like the built-in functions, most of them take any number of arguments. MEASURES:DIM* &rest args MEASURES:DIM+ &rest args MEASURES:DIM- &rest args MEASURES:DIM/ &rest args MEASURES:DIM-EQL x y MEASURES:DIM-EQUAL x y MEASURES:DIM-EQUALP x y MEASURES:DIM/= &rest args MEASURES:DIM< &rest args MEASURES:DIM<= &rest args MEASURES:DIM= &rest args MEASURES:DIM> &rest args MEASURES:DIM>= &rest args MEASURES:DIM-EXPT dim power MEASURES:DIM-MAX &rest args MEASURES:DIM-MIN &rest args MEASURES:DIM-SQRT dim MEASURES:DIM-ZEROP dim MEASURES:DIM-NUMBER value unit Like DIMENSIONED-NUMBER MEASURES:DIM-NUMBER-P object MEASURES:DIM-SAME-UNITS-P x y Test to see if the units are compatible for addition & subtraction MEASURES:DIM-VALUE dn &optional unit A combination of unit-magnitude and unit-value-as MEASURES:PRINT-CONVERTED dim &rest unit-format See the measures documentation. What follows are some examples of the use of the units and dimensions. ------------------------------------------------------------ (creation-policy :classified-instance) (defrelation speed :range speed-measure :characteristics :single-valued) (defconcept car) (defconcept sports-car :is (:and car (> speed 100mph))) (defconcept lame-vehicle :is (:and car (< speed 80mph))) (tellm (car porsche) (speed porsche 240km/h)) Recognition changes for state 1 in context TEST-THEORY: entry: PORSCHE |C|SPORTS-CAR PORSCHE |C|CAR (tell (car vw-bug) (speed vw-bug 60mph)) Recognition changes for state 2 in context TEST-THEORY: entry: VW-BUG |C|LAME-VEHICLE VW-BUG |C|CAR ------------------------------------------------------------ (get-subconcepts 'loom::measure) => (|C|ACCELERATION-MEASURE |C|ANGLE-MEASURE |C|AREA-MEASURE |C|DATA-MEASURE |C|DENSITY-MEASURE |C|DISTANCE-MEASURE |C|ELECTRIC-CURRENT-MEASURE |C|ELECTRIC-POTENTIAL-MEASURE |C|ELECTRIC-RESISTANCE-MEASURE |C|FORCE-MEASURE |C|FREQUENCY-MEASURE |C|ILLUMINANCE-MEASURE |C|INDUCTANCE-MEASURE |C|LUMINOUS-INTENSITY-MEASURE |C|MAGNETIC-FLUX-DENSITY-MEASURE |C|MAGNETIC-FLUX-MEASURE |C|MASS-MEASURE |C|LOOM::MEASURE |C|POWER-MEASURE |C|PRESSURE-MEASURE |C|REVOLUTION-MEASURE |C|SCALAR-MEASURE |C|SPEED-MEASURE |C|TEMPERATURE-MEASURE |C|TIME-MEASURE |C|VOLUME-MEASURE |C|WORK-OR-TORQUE-MEASURE) ------------------------------------------------------------ (retrieve ?x (units power-measure ?x)) => ("GW" "MW" "kW" "hp" "shp" "W" "N.m/s" "mW") (retrieve ?x (base-unit distance-measure ?x)) => ("m") (retrieve ?x (units distance-measure ?x)) => ("parsec" "lightyear" "LY" "AU" "NM" "nautmi" "mile" "miles" "mi" "km" "furlong" "fathom" "m" "yd" "ft" "dm" "in" "cm" "pica" "mm" "point" "pt" "um" "nm" "angstrom" "ang") (retrieve ?x (unit-unit 220km/h ?x)) => ("km/h") (retrieve ?x (unit-magnitude 220km/h ?x)) => (220) (retrieve ?x (unit-magnitude-as 220km/h "mph" ?x)) => (156250/1143) (float (car *)) => 136.70166 (retrieve ?x (dimensioned-number 20 "ft" ?x)) => (20ft) (retrieve ?x (dimensioned-number 10000m "km" ?x)) => (10km) (retrieve ?x (* 30mph 3h ?x)) => (144840.95m) (retrieve ?x (dimensioned-number (* 30mph 3h) "mile" ?x)) => (90mile) ------------------------------------------------------------ (defconcept stuff) (defrelation mass :characteristics :single-valued) (defrelation volume :characteristics :single-valued) (defrelation density :is (:satisfies (?x ?y) (/ (mass ?x) (volume ?x) ?y)) :characteristics :single-valued) (tellm (stuff block) (Mass block 20kg)) (retrieve ?x (mass block ?x)) => (20kg) (retrieve ?x (density block ?x)) => NIL (tellm (volume block 1m3)) (retrieve ?x (density block ?x)) => (20kg/m3) ------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE: The units code will aggressively put dimensions into their canonical form. This can lead to some surprising results, such as when one wishes to express something like fuel consumption in terms of volume of fuel per distance traveled. The expression "50 liters per kilometer" (for some particularly inefficient mode of travel) will get transformed into an area measurement, since the canonical representation of a liter is in terms of cubic meters, and all dimensions are simplified. 50l/km => 4.9999997e-5m2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Also, as a special hack, a some scalar quantities have also been defined to allow the natural representation of percent (%) and a not quite so natural representation of promille (%%) for use in arithmetic: (ms:dim* 1000 10%) => 100 (ms:dim* 1000 10%%) => 10 (ms:dim* 50m 50%) => 25m As the above code hints, there are a set of operations for using the measures package outside of Loom forms. The details are described below under a subsection of the "Changes to Loom Functions" section. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === CHANGES TO LOOM-FEATURES === The Loom feature :EXPAND-SYSTEM-DEFINED-PRINT-NAMES has been changed to :LONG-PRINT-NAMES The Loom feature :APPROXIMATE-OPEN-INTERVALS no longer has any effect. It is will continue to be recognized by the code for backward compatibility. Its function has been rendered superfluous by the true open interval upgrade. A new Loom feature :ALLOW-DUPLICATE-CREATES has been added. If true, Loom will not signal an error if a call to the CREATE function specifies a name that is already taken. Instead Loom will try to do something intelligent. This assists some code that generates Loom forms. It is NOT SET by default. A new Loom feature :AUTOMATICALLY-ADVANCE-STATE has been added. It controls the behavior of updates. If the feature is set, then each assertion will advance the state of the knowledge base (agent time) and there is no difference between TELLM and TELL (or any other ...M and associated forms). The wrapper WITHOUT-PRODUCTIONS is not affected by this setting. It is SET by default. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === OKBC SUPPORT === Loom now also offers support for the OKBC protocol. The actual software for OKBC is a separate download and is not activated by default. It also relies on Stanford University's generic OBKC server code which can be obtained through the OKBC link from this URL: http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/sns.html The concept OKBC-INDIVIDUAL has been added, corresponding to the OKBC :INDIVIDUAL class, which consists of all objects in the Loom system except for CONCEPT objects. In addition, the relations OKBC-PRETTY-NAME has been added. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF RELEASE NOTES